Olivia S. Mitchell Faculty Profile

Olivia S. Mitchell
International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans Professor; Professor of Insurance and Risk Management and Business and Public Policy
Chairperson, Insurance and Risk Management Department
Executive Director, Pension Research Council; Director, Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Research

PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1978; MA, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1976; BA, Harvard University,1974

Research Areas
International private and social insurance; employee benefits and compensation; economics of public and private pensions; risk and crisis management; health/retirement analysis and policy; labor economics and public finance

Recent Consulting
ESRI-Japanese Government; InterAmerican Development Bank; U.S. Social Security Administration; U.S. Government Accounting Office; U.S. Treasury; World Bank

Current Projects
Global social security and pension reform; financial and health literacy and retirement preparedness; wealth, health, and retirement; annuities and health insurance.

Academic Positions Held
Wharton: 1993-present (Chairperson, Insurance and Risk Management Department, 2008-present; named International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans Professor and Executive Director, Pension Research Council, 1993; Director, Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Research, 2003-present). Previous appointments: Cornell University; Harvard University. Visiting appointment: University of New South Wales, Australia; Goethe Universitat of Frankfurt; Celia Moh Visiting Professor, Singapore Management University

Other Positions
Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research

Career and Recent Professional Awards; Teaching Awards
Roger F. Murray Prize, Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance; Carolyn Shaw Bell Award of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession; Fidelity Pyramid Research Institute Award; Doctorate (Honorary), University of St. Gallen; INA International Prize for Insurance Sciences from the Instituto Nazionale Delle Assicurazioni/Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei; TIAA-CREF/Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security; various research awards and grants for research on retirement and pension economics.

Professional Leadership 2005-2009
Co-PI for Health and Retirement Study; Executive Committee, Michigan Retirement Research Center Advisory Committee, Centre for Pensions and Superannuation, University of New South Wales; Advisory Board Netspar, Netherlands; Board of Editors, Journal of Pension Economics and Finance; Board of Editors, Journal of Pensions Management; Board of Editors, Industrial and Labor Relations Review; Senior Fellow, Wharton Financial Institutions Center; Senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute.

Corporate and Public Sector Leadership 2005-2009
Executive Committee, American Economic Association; Trustee of the Wells Fargo Advantage Trust Boards; Central Provident Fund Advisory Board of Singapore

Representative Publications
(with John Ameriks, eds) Recalibrating Retirement. Oxford University Press. Forthcoming 2008.

(with R. Maurer and R. Rogalla)
“The Victory of Hope over Angst? Funding, Asset Allocation, and Risk-Taking in German Public Sector Pension Reform.” Frontiers in Pensions Finance. Ed. Dirk Broeders, Sylvester Eijffinger, and Aerdt Houben. De Nederlandsche Bank. Edward Elgar. 2008: 51-81.

(with M. Pauly and P. Zeng)
“Death Spiral or Euthanasia? The Demise of Generous Group Health Insurance Coverage.” Inquiry. (44)4: 412-427 (Winter 2007).

(with B. Koh, T. Tanuwidjaja and J. Fong.)
“Investment Patterns in Singapore’s CPF Central Provident Fund.” Journal of Pension Economics and Finance. 7(1): 1-29 (March 2007).

(with W. Horneff, R. Maurer, and I. Dus)
“Following the Rules: Integrating Asset Allocation and Annuitization in Retirement Portfolios." Insurance: Mathematics and Economics. 42: 396-408 (2007).

(with A. Lusardi)
“Baby Boomer Retirement Security: The Roles of Planning, Financial Literacy, and Housing Wealth.” Journal of Monetary Economics. (January 2007).

(with H. Jin and J. Piggott)
“Socially Responsible Investment in Japanese Pensions.” Pacific-Basin Finance Journal. (November 2006-Lead article).

(with A. Muermann and J. Volkman)
“Regret, Portfolio Choice, and Guarantees in Defined Contribution Schemes.” Insurance: Mathematics and Economics. (2006).

(with I. Dus and R. Maurer)
“Betting on Death and Capital Markets in Retirement: A Shortfall Risk Analysis of Life Annuities versus Phased Withdrawal Plans.” Financial Services Review. (2005-Lead article).